


What I'd do for you

by BuffaloBuddy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Crazy Harry Potter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot, Romance, Short & Sweet, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26010499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuffaloBuddy/pseuds/BuffaloBuddy
Summary: Oneshot about a grief driven Harry going back in time to see his dead lover again and change history.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 108





	What I'd do for you

**Author's Note:**

> I needed a bit of a break from my other stories and wrote this short oneshot instead.
> 
> As always, J.K. Rowling owns everything.
> 
> Feel free to continue the story on your own, just tag me, I'd love to read it.

Harry jolted awake, breathing harshly, his heart beating a mile a minute and his body covered in cold sweat.

He looked around and smiled in the darkness of his bed curtains at Hogwarts.

He did it. He really came back.

He shivered in excitement and nerves.

He could see Draco again.

~

Draco was a mess. He’d decided to take a walk around Hogwarts despite the late hour (or was it early?) because he was freaking out inside. He’d been at Hogwarts for weeks already and he had no idea how he was going to fulfill the Dark Lord’s stupid, insane, impossible task.

How the hell was he supposed to kill Dumbledore?

But if he didn’t figure it out, who knows what the snake monster currently taking over his house might do.

Honestly, this was supposed to ‘redeem’ his family but what a load of shite. He was being set up to fail! Why’d the Dark Lord even bother marking him if he probably wasn’t going to last the year? Was it all just a convoluted way to punish his father?

Draco continued pacing the dark hallways, trying to silence his thoughts with the burning in his legs.

Then he heard the strangest sound. Almost like slapping, or more likely, flesh hitting the ground - feet? It was approaching rapidly.

Draco stopped to pull out his wand. He’d hex whatever student thought this was a good time for pranking. But then his jaw dropped and he almost lost his grip on his wand.

Harry Potter, angsty golden boy extraordinaire had just come barreling around the corner in ratty pajamas and barefoot. Potter spotted him and exultantly cried out “Draco!” before picking up speed and opening his arms.

Draco didn’t have time to decide if he should hex the crazy idiot or not before Potter leapt at him, wrapping his arms around Draco’s neck and repeating “Draco, Draco, Draco, Draco…”

Draco had stiffened, expecting an attack, before freezing in shock.

What the hell? Was Potter hugging him? Was this some sort of prank after all?

Then he noticed the sniffling and the trembling.

Potter was crying.

“You’re alive, you’re alive. Thank god it worked. Draco. My Draco.”

Very soon, Draco was forced to wrap his arms around Potter and stumbled a bit in an effort to stay standing as the sobbing boy leant all his weight on him.

 _Potter_ was _crying._ IN. HIS. ARMS!

What… Why…

Draco’s thinking short-circuited. Stumped by the anomaly in front of him and vaguely patting Potter on the back on auto-pilot. He was a gentleman with manners after all.

~

Harry was so happy. He couldn’t remember the last time he was happy. Probably when Draco was last alive.

He could feel Draco’s arms coming around him, patting his back gently and he couldn’t help but sob a bit harder. This Draco wasn’t a figure of his imagination. This Draco was real and could hug him back. He’d do anything for this Draco, anything at all to keep him solid and alive. But first, he needed to explain.

His love was probably confused. They were obviously still at Hogwarts, based on Draco’s looks, sometime during 5th or 6th year. Draco still hates him.

“No!” his arms tightened around Draco possessively.

“You can’t hate me. You can’t. You can’t. You can’t. I won’t let you. I need to tell you. Yes. That’s what I’ll do.”

Harry pulled back briefly, just far enough to make eye contact. “I’ll tell you everything, Draco. That way you’ll understand and maybe you’ll love me again.”

Draco’s eyes had been tracking across Harry’s tear-stained face but flicked up at that, making eye-contact in his shock.

“It’s okay if you don’t right away though.” Harry looked away, clearly crushed by the very concept. “I’ll still protect you.”

~

Draco was becoming very concerned about Potter. Someone must have done something, or maybe the stress of the Dark Lord finally made him crack. But Potter wasn’t making much sense and what in Merlin’s name did he mean about loving _again_? When had he ever confessed to Potter?

In the secret corners of his soul, he might admit to having the slightest crush on the Gryffindor. Potter was annoyingly sincere and brave in the way story-book heroes were even if that made the two of them clash at every interaction. Plus, he was growing to be surprisingly beautiful for a man. Slim and graceful but still somehow masculine. But he would never in a million years admit to those thoughts. No one, not even Pansy or Blaise had an inkling.

No, this must be part of the prank. Or perhaps it was a prank on Potter? That would make much more sense. Some sort of charm making him do embarrassing things like hugging and crying on Draco. But it would be a rather mean-spirited prank. Not something he could see Potter’s friends doing. Not even those infernal Weasley twins would have done something like this…

Draco was stumped and barely paying attention to Potter’s continued mumbling. At least Potter had mostly stopped crying.

Finally, Draco regained enough control of himself to peel Potter off of him, though when he let go, Potter tried to go in for another hug, so he ended up holding the sniffling Gryffindor at arm’s length by the shoulders.

“Potter where are Granger and the Weasel?” He looked around Potter's shoulder up and down the hallway. “We need to get you to McGonagall, or maybe Pomfrey would be better…”

“No! You’re not listening, Draco! Just-just come with me.” Potter spun around, taking Draco’s hand in the process and lead him to the nearest empty classroom.

Still somewhat in shock and not willing to risk angering this slightly insane Potter, Draco obediently followed. He’d keep Potter calm and convince him to go to Pomfrey on his own.

Closing the door, Potter whipped out his wand. But before Draco could react and cast a shield, Potter turned away, casting locking and privacy wards. _Silently._

Then he again took Draco’s hand like he had every right to, lead him over to the teacher’s desk, transfigured it into a soft looking couch and pushed Draco down onto the cushions before joining him, snuggling into Draco’s side with a contented sigh and manually wrapping Draco’s arm around his shoulder.

“Ok, this will have to do. Now, are you comfortable? This might be a long conversation, Draco.”

Draco was again in shock at Potter's behavior and Potter's seemingly happy insistence on constant physical contact. He’d been stiffly following along for the sole reason that none of Potter's actions were threatening and he was honestly worrying about the boy’s mental health at this point. But he managed to nod. At the very least, this whole experience would make an interesting story and it was a nice break from the nervous pacing he’d been doing earlier. Just as long as the Dark Snake-face never found out about this.

Then Potter began his tale.

It started reasonably, re-hashing stuff Draco already knew but quickly turned dark. He talked about the return of the Dark Lord, being tricked into going to the Ministry last year, then Draco’s own assigned mission, patting his chest reassuringly as Draco stiffened before quickly moving on. He talked about stalking Draco, a confrontation in a bathroom, Snape covering for Draco and a war. He talked about camping and dangerous pieces of jewelry, Draco lying to save Potter and a battle where his own mother went against the Dark Lord.

Draco didn’t know what to think. Potter was crazy, right? He hoped Potter was crazy.

Finally, Potter started on what he called ‘their beginning’. He talked about a trial, going back to school and enemies turned to friends to lovers, meeting by the lake secretly and sharing stories about their childhood.

Draco was getting nervous now, Potter knew about the time he broke his mother’s heirloom vase and she’d cried but forgiven him. Potter knew about the first time he flew and broke his ankle, about how he loved all magical creatures when he was little and wanted to be a magizoologist until his father beat the idea out of him. But Draco couldn’t think on it too much, Potter was continuing.

He talked about secret crushes revealed and a secret relationship because of angry friends and a vindictive public. He talked about losing contact with the Weasel and distant letters with Granger. Comforting each other after nightmares and a townhouse in London they fixed up together. Four happy years where Harry became everything to Draco and Draco became everything to Harry.

It was becoming harder to think Potter was just crazy.

Then Harry talked about ‘the end of it all’. It started with something so small, someone had spotted them holding hands in muggle London. Then rumors began popping up. Someone followed them home, found out they lived together and virtual hell broke loose in the papers. The public was furious that ‘Death Eater scum’ was tarnishing their savior. They started going out less, Harry hoping to avoid the questions and attention, Draco hoping to avoid the hissed comments and glares. But a couple weeks later they couldn’t stay inside any longer and ventured out to Diagon to pick up some things. People reacted as if the news had just come out. Their weeks of waiting for public excitement to die down were worth nothing. People looked at Harry with pity and Draco with hatred. Finally, towards the end of the trip someone called out to them. Some old Order member was screaming that they would save Harry from corruption and without a second thought to the bystanders or Harry himself holding Draco’s hand, shot the killing curse at Draco.

At this point Harry was clinging to Draco’s robes and fighting off gasping sobs. Trembling horribly but determined to tell Draco everything.

Harry described watching his love die, dropping cold down to the street and dragging Harry down with as they were still holding hands.

Harry said that was probably when he broke. He told Draco that he realized he was probably not very stable anymore but he was going to protect Draco this time around.

Harry described his shock and horror at Draco’s death, his breakdown in the middle of Diagon and his screaming at the Order member. The Aurors had to arrest them both because Harry was flinging serious and deadly curses at the man in public. He wanted to hurt the man the way he was hurting and later wished he had simply killed him in retaliation. But Harry admitted that it was probably a good thing he didn’t because his fame might not have kept him out of prison if he had cast an unforgivable and he wouldn’t have been able to come back if he were in prison.

Harry went into seclusion after that. Tirelessly scouring the Black libraries and the Potter ones when he could find them. At first, he just wanted to bring Draco back but when it became clear it was impossible to bring the Draco he knew and loved back to life, he moved onto other ideas. Eventually, he was lead to time magic. So obscure and unknown, the ministry hadn’t even labeled it dark or light. It took him years to find anything viable, probably 3 years though he wasn’t keeping track all that well.

He didn’t go into detail about the ritual he finally found but told Draco that it involved a lot of human sacrifice and he still hadn’t been sure if it would work or if he would just die. He hadn’t cared much anymore and had in fact, considered suicide as a means of joining Draco multiple times over the years of his research.

But it had worked and he was here and Draco was alive!

~

Draco and Harry sat silently for quite a while after Harry’s story came to an end. Draco was having trouble wrapping his mind around everything. He no longer thought this was all a prank but could he really believe everything Harry had said?

He wanted to. Merlin, he was already referring to Potter as Harry in his head, and as horrible as parts of the story were, other parts were wonderful. If it were true, then Harry loved him. Beautiful, brave Harry loved _him_ , not even for the Malfoy title but for _him_. Plus, snake-face was going to lose.

Draco needed to be sure though. He could try legilimency but he wasn’t all that good yet. So, it would have to be a vow. Hopefully, Harry wouldn’t be too offended by his need for proof.

He turned slightly to face Harry, pushing away a bit to look at the boy’s face. Merlin, Harry was still crying silently and his eyes were all puffy and red by this point.

“Potter… Harry. I want to believe you I really do.” Harry looked up with a sniffle. “But I need a bit of proof.”

Harry opened his mouth as his eyebrows drew together but Draco continued talking over him. “Can you take a magical vow that everything you’ve told me is true?”

This was a pivotal moment and Draco held his breath, if this had all been a trick of some sort, there was no way Harry would agree. But his worrying was for nothing. Harry snapped his mouth shut with a contemplative look on his face before nodding.

Draco and Harry separated for the first time in hours as Harry sat up and pulled out his wand. Draco tried not to think about how cold he suddenly felt without Harry snuggled up to his side.

“I, Harry James Potter, hereby swear on my magic that everything I have told Draco this night has been true to the best of my knowledge. I came back in time after Draco’s death, I love him and I’d do almost anything for him.”

Harry smiled as he used a quick _Lumos_ to prove his honesty.

“I’d do anything for you Draco, you are the only person in this time that I care about. Whatever you want to do from here on out, I’m with you. You want Voldemort to win? I’ll change sides. I’m sure I can convince the snake-man to forget about killing me with the knowledge I hold. You want Voldemort dead? I can make that happen. You want to run away to Australia? I’m with you. Just don’t leave me behind. Please. Even if you can’t love me, please, let me stay with you. Use me for my money or fame, I don’t really care. Just-“

Draco interrupted Harry’s begging by grabbing Harry’s head and kissing him soundly.

Harry moaned and immediately opened to Draco’s explorations, leaning into the kiss and grabbing Draco’s robes again. He would never deny Draco.

Meanwhile, Draco wanted to map every corner of Harry’s mouth, he wanted to claim Harry and make him his. This was like his every secret fantasy come true. He had someone who loved him wholly and truly just for him and that person was the lovely Harry Potter, who he’d been trying to convince himself he cared nothing for, for years.

They finally parted to breathe and Draco leaned his forehead against Harry’s.

“This was not at all how I saw this night going but Harry, if you consent to being mine, I’ll never let you go. This changes everything. But know that I’d do almost anything for you too.”


End file.
